It was about noon Thursday, and a flower delivery woman approached. Before speaking, the grieving Slidell mother intercepted her, said, “I’m Janice” and signed for the condolences, suddenly seasoned at receiving care packages.

Matthew C. Powell

Three weeks to the day after her son, Spc. Matthew C. Powell, had hugged her goodbye and returned to Afghanistan, the 20-year-old Slidell native died Tuesday of wounds he received from an improvised explosive device near the Pakistani border.

Janice Powell, 48, recalls her son’s sighs as he prepared to fly back to rejoin his unit on Sept. 21: “Ah, I wish I had more time. I wish I didn’t have to leave so soon.”

A member of the Northshore High class of 2009, Powell was killed in Ghunday Ghar when his military vehicle was attacked, the Department of Defense announced Wednesday night.

On Thursday, Janice Powell stood in her front lawn in Slidell’s Yester Oaks subdivision, five small American flags blowing in the wind as cars packed her driveway.

“I’m still in shock, still dealing with this,” his mother said.

Yet despite her son’s natural longing to continue hugging her last month, Powell was ready to re-enter the theater, his mother said.

On Thursday, his family and friends described how Powell had matured, “grown into a man,” since joining the Army in July 2008. He’d found something that gave his life purpose and pride, they said.

Powell was assigned to Company A., 526th Brigade Support Battalion, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, of the 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) based in Fort Campbell, Ky. He arrived in Fort Campbell in November 2008 and first left for Afghanistan in May.

During his recent home leave, Powell had paid a special visit to his former football coach, Mike Bourg. As the two walked onto the Northshore High football field, side by side, Bourg noticed Powell held himself taller.

Powell never was the best of students, nor was he a starter on the football team’s offensive line, but Bourg said Powell worked out during the summer practices with a purpose, knowing that the military beckoned him.

“He seemed to me, in his appearance, his mannerisms, the way he carried himself, that he kind of knew that he had made it,” Bourg added about that September meeting. “He seemed to realize that he was doing something good, and that was good to see, that he was proud of what he was doing, that he was proud of his accomplishments.”

Bethany Jones, 17, a senior at Northshore High who described Powell as the “sweet big brother figure in my life,” said Powell was “the leader of the fun.”

“He always was the funniest one, the one doing the random dancing in the middle of the party, always being goofy,” she said. “Any time that I was slightly upset, he would see it, even when he was in Iraq he would notice on Facebook, and he would cheer me up.”

Bethany’s mother, Shelly Jones, taught Powell each Sunday during high school at Grace Memorial Baptist Church. She described him as “a big teddy bear: so sweet, so strong, so tall.”

Powell was the fourth soldier from the 101st Airborne Division’s 2nd Brigade Combat Team to die this month in Afghanistan from wounds sustained by an improvised explosive device. He told his mother two weeks ago that he’d likely return home for good in March.

Janice Powell already had started planning a coming home party for him. While Powell’s friends said he saw a career in the military as his future, she said her son wasn’t yet sure if he would re-enlist – “One day he’d say one thing, one thing the next.”